On September 6, 2013, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issued a press release regarding an industry meeting between CBP's Pharmaceutical, Health and Chemicals Center of Excellence (CEE), the government, and the private sector concerning issues facing the pharmaceutical, health and chemical sectors.

The two-day workshop, held in August, 2013,  included discussions on the collaborative work between the Pharmaceutical, Health and Chemicals Industry and the Partner Government Agencies (PGAs) on new products, processes, facilitation changes and general supply chain disruptions.

The release explains that “by the end of 2013, the Pharmaceutical, Health and Chemicals CEE will account for 25% of all the trade processed by their industries." It furthermore states that the CEE staff is "using their industry knowledge to resolve holds and mitigate requests for information or CF-28s—oftentimes before the accounts know it themselves."

The CEEs now cover all 97 chapters of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule and will continue to improve, especially once the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) has been fully deployed in approximately three years.

The complete news release can be accessed here